Dr. Anthony Fauci and Republican Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul engaged in a heated exchange at a Tuesday Senate hearing on COVID-19.

When Paul claimed Fauci was attacking scientists who disagreed with him, Fauci responded, "you keep distorting the truth."

"I brought together a group of people to look at every possibility with an open mind ... you're completely turning it around," Fauci said.

Fauci said the purpose of the committee was to get help to the American public, but he said Paul instead chooses to "keep coming back to personal attacks on me that have absolutely no relevance."

Fauci told the Senate committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions that Paul's attacks are "for political reasons" and inspire "the crazies out there."

Fauci referenced the December arrest of a California man who, at a traffic stop, was allegedly found with an AR-15 style rifle, loaded magazines, boxes of ammunition and body armor. Prosecutors said the driver downloaded TikTok videos, compiling a list of people he allegedly wanted to kill, including Fauci and former Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.

The U.S. daily death average from COVID-19 is steadily rising, with an average of 1,550 new fatalities each day -- up by about 44% since Christmas, according to federal data.

This average is still significantly lower than last winter when the nation peaked at about 3,400 deaths per day.

Indiana now has the nation's highest death rate, followed by Delaware and Wyoming.

Nearly 146,000 Americans with COVID-19 are currently in hospitals -- a pandemic high -- according to new data from the Department of Health and Human Services.

On average, more than 18,500 virus-positive Americans are being admitted to the hospital each day, a figure which has more than doubled over the last month. It's still not clear how many COVID-19-positive people in hospitals were admitted to the hospital for the virus or admitted for other reasons and coincidentally tested positive.

About 30% of hospitals (with available data) are facing critical staffing shortages.

-ABC News' Arielle Mitropoulos

With 48,686 New Yorkers testing positive on Monday, the state saw a case drop for the first time in weeks, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced.

Hochul called this "a glimmer of hope," but warned, "we are not at the end."

While hospitalizations continue to rise, "the rate of increase is slowing, and to us that is very encouraging," the governor said.

-ABC News' Will Gretsky

Chicago residents can head to their local alderman's office to get a free KN95 mask as the city distributes 1.5 million of them on Tuesday, ABC Chicago station WLS reported.

With another 4,793 daily cases, Chicago's test positivity rate stands at 18.9% as of Tuesday, according to city data.

Following heated exchanges between Dr. Anthony Fauci and several Republican senators at a Congressional hearing Tuesday, more than 200 prominent science and public health leaders have now penned an open letter voicing their support of the White House chief medical adviser's service and leadership -- and condemning attacks against him. 

"We deplore the personal attacks on Dr. Fauci," the letter says. "The criticism is inaccurate, unscientific, ill-founded in the facts and, increasingly, motivated by partisan politics. It is a distraction from what should be the national focus -- working together to finally overcome a pandemic that is killing about 500,000 people a year."

Signatories include former Senate majority leader Bill Frist, a Republican; Rich Besser, former acting director for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; members of President Joe Biden's transition COVID-19 task force; and several Nobel laureates.

The letter comes two days after a Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee hearing, during which Fauci publicly accused Republican Sen. Rand Paul of fomenting the violent threats and harassment that he and his family have had to contend with during the pandemic's politicized climate.

-ABC News' Sasha Pezenik